Sunbird Brings Back Its iMessage App for Android After Three-Year Hiatus

Sunbird Messaging has made its return to the Google Play Store, giving Android users the chance to enjoy blue bubble features in iMessage, including reactions and high-quality video sharing, all for a monthly fee of $2.99. While Apple and Google have improved cross-platform messaging with RCS support, Android users still face challenges in iMessage group chats, such as issues with reactions and replies.

After nearly three years of downtime due to security concerns, Sunbird claims its revamped service has addressed these issues. The company assures that “Any message moving through our infrastructure is protected in transit and released once it’s delivered,” and that any media sent or received is typically deleted within 48 hours, never exceeding 72 hours.

Sunbird:
> Your messages are encrypted on your phone before they leave it, encrypted in transit over certificate-pinned connections, and encrypted at rest on your device, using strong AES-256 encryption. On the final leg to an iPhone, your message is protected by Apple’s iMessage end-to-end encryption, which Sunbird never modifies, intercepts, or weakens.

Danny Mizrahi, Sunbird’s CEO, mentioned that “an independent security auditing firm tested its rebuilt Sunbird app” and found “no critical vulnerabilities.” He also emphasized that when a user connects to iMessage, their Apple ID password is used once to establish the session and then discarded. “We do not store the password, and we do not keep an authentication token that would let us sign in as them later,” he added.

In addition to iMessage, Sunbird allows access to Google Messages and SMS, with plans to integrate WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger later this year, along with an AI assistant designed to summarize chats and draft replies.